Update: Police identify man killed in explosion at Syracuse garage

Dick Blume / The Post-StandardSyracuse firefighters are at K&C Auto Body Center at Milton Ave., and Erie Blvd West, in Syracuse. A worker was cutting barrels with a torch and one of the barrels exploded.

Syracuse, NY -- A 77-year-old Syracuse man died following an explosion at a Syracuse auto garage this morning.

Robert Hill, an employee of K&C Auto Body Center on Milton Avenue, was preparing steel 55-gallon barrels for disposal outside the garage when a barrel exploded about 11:25 a.m., fire officials said.

Hill, of Emerson Avenue, suffered life-threatening wounds and was taken to University Hospital, said District Fire Chief John Schafer. He died shortly afterward at the hospital, Lt. Joe Galloway, a Syracuse fire investigator, said.

The man was using a plasma cutter to remove the tops and bottoms to the barrels, Galloway said. The heat from plasma cutter ignited a waste oil mixture inside the barrel, Galloway said.

The garage is located in a triangle formed by Milton and Willis avenues and Erie Boulevard West near the city line with Solvay.

Employees of the Pie Shack, a pizza place across Willis Avenue from the garage, heard the explosion. Nihad Ibrahim said the building shook. Employees ran out of the shop and could see flames across the street near a bay door of the garage.